The purpose of this investigation is to accomplish fast and selective separations of (a) short peptides, (b) enantiomers and diastereomers of amino acids, peptides and other optically active compounds of biological importance, and (c) classes of compounds such as amino sugars, fatty acids, mucopolysaccharides, etc. by high performance liquid chromatography. For the separation of peptides bonded peptide stationary phases will be designed. The selectivity of such phases can be altered by changing the amino acids in the bonded peptide, and the mobile phase. For the separation of optically active compounds, optically active bonded phases will be prepared. A rational approach is offered which will allow the suitable selection of the bonded phases for a particular separation. Bonded metal cations will be used for the selective separation of classes of solutes such as amino sugars, proteins and mucopolysaccharides.